Sarah Palin Won’t Make Hillary’s Mistakes

Marc Ambinder has written a very interesting post today on the devilish prowess of Sarah Palin, someone I’ve continually covered since the 2008 election ended. For good reason. There is no one who fits the mood or the times or fills the current political vacuum better than Sarah Palin. There has also never been anyone as electric on the right since Ronald Reagan. It’s true we’re a long way off from 2012 and it’s useless to predict what could happen. But let’s just say Palin’s preparing her way, because she intends to be ready if the playing field stays as open as it is today, because she has no intention of letting the Establishment ruin her party like what happened to Hillary, because Mrs. Clinton actually was the establishment candidate or so she thought.

As the left and the DNC mock Palin and delight in the prospect of a potential 2012 candidacy, with the Establishment crew on the right clucking over her lack of experience and required learning still needed to be done, Sarah Palin quietly goes about her business building her own personal base. Tea Partiers got her first. Next stop?

Next week, Palin will be a VIP guest of honor at the Daytona International Speedway for the Daytona 500. She’ll walk among the campers and RVs set up infield. This summer, she’s agreed to speak at an international bowling expo. In April, in Las Vegas, Palin will keynote the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers Convention at Caesar’s Palace. She will make choices in Republican primaries — she campaigned Sunday with Rick Perry, bearing a “Hi mom!” on her palm — more on that in a bit — and an eloquent jab at the President: “‘We will proudly cling to our guns and our religion.” – Marc Ambinder

I’ve never thought the mostly elitist arguments against her are worth the air needed to spew the venom. Because unless the Republicans can find someone with the same wattage, as Ambinder notes in his post today, she’ll be the toughest in the crowd to beat.

“If the primaries were this year, I suspect she’d be nominated,” a senior adviser to one of Sarah Palin’s potential rivals confides. It’s easy to see why: no one who’s thinking of running beats the enthusiasm she generates among Republican activists. But there is more to the case for Palin than just the confluence of her personality and a vacuum within the Republican Party: there is a method to her management of her public image. It strongly hints that she has pretty much decided to run for president in 2012, unless something knocks her out of the race; it is more organized and structured that it appears; and it is something that Republican insiders, in particular, will ignore at their peril. … – Marc Ambinder

Mitt Romney’s lack of emotional connection with voters works against him, even as the economic climate plays into his strengths. But Palin’s evangelical roots have the potential to wipe him out in the primary. As for Mike Huckabee, Sarahcuda will annihilate him with negative ads on his pardons, so it remains to be seen if his current popularity can withstand her onslaught, which will be unflinchingly devastating. As Sarah Palin has no compunction about playing hard and dirty.

As for the Republican Establishment, Sarah Palin has no intention of going the Hillary Clinton route. Palin knows they can’t stand her, fear her and will stop her if she gives them a chance or waits for their nod. Something Hillary never grasped of the Senate Democrats who worked behind her back to encourage Barack Obama to run. All’s fair in politics, but Hillary missed what was happening all around her. It’s not that Democrats hated Hillary like the GOP Establishment does Palin, but people from Harry Reid to Ted Kennedy to Nancy Pelosi were rooting for Obama, some long before Hillary even announced, with key players offering their support to Obama in private and long before it was made official.

It’s too soon to tell about Sarah and 2012, but she’s not going to wait for anyone else to give her permission to run for president. She’s not going to be a good little Republican and wait her turn either. Her instincts tell her, and Scott Brown’s win showed her, that the mood is right for someone who can tap into that populist, old fashioned anger, topped with a lot of home spun, good old American patriotism, which she hopes harkens back to a time when America was on top in all columns, everyone was working, Detroit was selling cars, and American prestige financially was still intact. Making people feel good about her and thinking it can translate to a different type of change.

Palin plans to ride the wave of gun toting, religion clinging, angry Americans, as they were known in 2008, as far as she can.

Besides, Hillary already prepared the way so that no woman on the national scene will ever have to go through the media gauntlet she did again.

Anyway, Sarah doesn’t care what the “lame stream media” says or reports. She’s already seen and weathered the worst to come out on the other side, already failed, so she’s fearless. Don’t like her crib notes on her palm? Mock her like Gibbs did, while also proving she’s relevant and what she does matters. She doesn’t care and neither do her fans, whom she hopes to turn into “Run, Sarah, Run!” activists for 2012. That dream of being the first female U.S. president never leaving her mind, the only downside of losing being she’ll be wildly wealthy.

Besides, Sarah’s got Fox, “the most trusted name in news,” and the biggest thing on the dial. Well, it was, until Sarah came to cable.

By Taylor Marsh|February 9th, 2010|Comments Off on Sarah Palin Won’t Make Hillary’s Mistakes